


Cough Medicine (is a sham)

by whoviee



Series: Timeless [2]
Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Family Fluff, Fluff, Gen, Jisung is jaeyong's son, M/M, Sickfic, Some Swearing, it's just really soft
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-13
Updated: 2019-05-13
Packaged: 2020-03-02 16:15:26
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,572
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18814471
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/whoviee/pseuds/whoviee
Summary: Jisung falls sick





	Cough Medicine (is a sham)

It's 5:36 AM when Jaehyun and Taeyong are disturbed by a somewhat distressed Jisung. He stumbles into their room, flustered, and shakes awake the parent nearest to him. Jaehyun wakes up disoriented. It's only when Jisung's incessant mumbling gets to him does he gain some clarity.

“You what?”

“I threw up,” Jisung states.

Jaehyun contemplates for a moment, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. “Do you still feel unwell?”

“No? I don't know.”

“Lie down. I'll see what I can do.” Jaehyun gets up. Jisung slips into bed, sighing happily at the warmth that covers him. Somewhere at his feet, Creampuff shifts.

+

Jaehyun's rummaging through their little medicine box, kept in a draw in their kitchen. In all honesty, he doesn't know what he's doing. Jisung's been sick before, but it want anything a paracetamol couldn't fix. The problem is, Jaehyun doesn't know if nausea and vomiting can be treated with just paracetamol. He sighs, taking out his phone. Hopefully the internet could help him.

+

Jaehyun doesn’t get his answers. Instead, the internet told him that Jisung was most probably going to die. He turns his phone off and looks outside through their kitchen-sized bay window. He sees greenery - the urban type, of calculated patches of land devoted to flowers and strict uniformity of trees. He turns away.

He decides to go to the chemist and ask for their help, knowing full well he won't get anything online. 

+

Taeyong wakes up to a different warmth next to him. It's not bad different, just not the one he fell asleep next to last night. When he opens his eyes, he realises it's Jisung.

“What are you doing here?” He mumbles out, eyes still closed.

“I'm not well.” Jisung snuggles closer to him, and is welcomed by open arms.

“Oh?”

“Yeah. I threw up.”

“Well,” Taeyong snorts. “That's not good.”

“Mmh.” Jisung buries his face in Taeyong's chest and falls asleep.

+

When the alarm sounds, it's 6 AM. It coincides with the unlocking of the front door, which Taeyong finds very suspicious and slightly frightening. He slips out of bed, silencing the alarm to ensure it doesn't wake Jisung up. Quietly, he pads to the kitchen, picks up a saucepan, and walks towards the main hall, where the intruder seems to be struggling with the keys.

“Hey lis-”

“Fuck!”

Taeyong steps back, gently placing the saucepan on a nearby coffee table. “It's just you.”

“It's just me, yeah,” Jaehyun says, terrified out of his mind with the house keys clutched to his chest.

“You scared the fuck out of me, Jaehyun. Where did you go?”

“As did you. I went to get Jisung medicine, by the way.”

Taeyong inhales, the nods. “Come.”

Jaehyun takes his shoes off and places them on the rack, then follows Taeyong to their bedroom. Jisung's curled up in a position identical to Creampuff's, cocooned in the bed sheets.

“Sungie,” Taeyong singsongs. He walks to him and nudges his shoulder. “Baby, wake up. Dad's got medicine for you.”

Jisung shifts, then groans, and finally sits up. “I feel like shit.”

Jaehyun snorts, handing over the leaf of tablets to him. He picks up the glass of water he'd left at the bedside table earlier this morning and gives it to him as soon as he pops a tablet in his mouth.

Jisung gulps it down, then falls back on the bed. “I'm not going to school today.”

“Yeah, definitely not.”

He curls up in the sheets again, and jerks Creampuff awake, who looks up for a second, unimpressed, and then falls back asleep. 

“What time is it, anyway?”

“Just past six, why?”

“I need to talk to Chenle,” Jisung sighs into the sheets.

“Why?”

“Do you not talk to your best friend every morning?”

Jaehyun and Taeyong share another one of their looks.

“If you say you're each other's best friends I'll-”

“You'll what?” Taeyong feigns innocence.

Jisung glares at them and rolls over, aiming to get off the bed.

“And where do you think you're going?” Jaehyun walks and stands at the side of the bed Jisung attempts to escape from.

“Gonna get my phone, I need to call Chenle.”

“I'll get it. Don't move.” Taeyong pointedly looks at Jisung, who furiously nods in understanding.

As Taeyong leaves the room, Jaehyun sighs and flops down on the bed beside Jisung.

“Should we go to work today? Do you need us to stay home?”

“Up to you.” Jisung turns to face him, which yet again disturbs Creampuff. He sits up, glares at both of them, and jumps off the bed. They watch him saunter out of the room as Taeyong walks in.

“Your phone.” Taeyong hands it to Jisung, who gratefully accepts it.

“Thanks appa, you're the best.”

Taeyong tries his best to control the overwhelming feeling those words give him, he really does, but a brilliant smile lights up his face.

“He really is,” Jaehyun adds dreamily.

And Taeyong's blushing now, too. He walks over to the bed and kisses Jisung's forehead and gives Jaehyun a short peck on the lips.

After a moment of content silence, Taeyong picks up something from his bedside table and throws it at Jaehyun.

“Lip balm. You need it.”

“Oh fuck off.”

+

“Chenle, my man. What's good?”

Taeyong and Jaehyun can hear Jisung's conversation in their bathroom where they're brushing their teeth.

“Me? Yeah I was just popping pills.”

Jaehyun snorts, causing toothpaste to splatter on their mirror. Taeyong glares at him, then gestures for him to clean it up, which he obediently does.

“Mmmh. I'm kinda sick.”

Taeyong spits out the toothpaste, and Jaehyun follows a second later.

“I threw up in the morning.. Yeah, I'm better now.”

After cleaning his mouth out, Taeyong takes a pair of towels from the chest of drawers in their dressing room.

“They gave me some white thing. I don't know what it's called, I can't pronounce all these medical terms.”

Jaehyun takes their suits out from the walk-in closet, then quickly places them back and opts for sweatpants and t-shirts instead.

“No, it's not an antibiotic. It doesn't end with 'mycin'. Listen! They don't give antibiotics over-the-counter. You need a prescription for them.”

Taeyong furrows his brows at the selection of clothes. He catches on when Jaehyun vaguely waves in Jisung's direction.

“No, I'm not coming to school.”

Taeyong strips and hops in the shower, while Jaehyun occupies himself by collecting the laundry. Feeling oddly productive, he collects Jisung’s too, loads the washing machine, and starts it up.

“No, Chenle, don’t do that.”

As he’s going back to the master bedroom, Creampuff catches his ankles. He bends down and picks the cat up, who immediately begins squirming. Reluctantly, Jaehyun puts him down, then walks to the kitchen to fill his bowl with breakfast.

“Chenle, please. Don’t make me beg.”

Jaehyun raises his eyebrows at that when he re enters the room. Jisung throws him an affronted look.

“Please. Don’t get my homework for me. I don’t want to do it.”

Jaehyun opens his mouth to protest.

“Yeah, I’ll make a deal… two chocolates?”

Taeyong exits the bathroom, shirtless. Jaehyun’s protest dies on his tongue.

“Yeah okay, three- No. No more.”

Taeyong’s unimpressed gaze lands on Jaehyun, who stops staring in shame. He goes to take his own shower.

“I’ll miss you too. Bye!”

+

“You’re seriously not going to work?”

“Don’t look so surprised. We aren’t workaholics.”

“Debatable.”

Jisung was going to add some valuable information to his previous statement, but it is eaten up by a coughing fit.

“That doesn’t sound good,” Jaehyun says from the kitchen.

Taeyong and Jisung are sitting on the sofa in the living room, very absorbed in the reality show that’s been playing on the television.

“Does it matter?” Jisung croaks out. “They’re gonna get a divorce.”

“They won’t. Otherwise she’ll take the kids and he won’t have any source of validation left,” Taeyong argues.

Jaehyun walks out of the kitchen with a bowl of porridge their housekeeper has prepared. “You need cough medicine too.”

“Cough medicine is a sham.” Taeyong sounds oddly determined.

“What do you suggest then, Dr. Lee?” Jaehyun mocks as he places the porridge on a tray in front of Jisung.

“Ginger tea. No sugar, no milk.”

Jaehyun seems like he’s going to argue, but very smartly shuts his mouth.

Jisung looks between them, and in a serious tone, comments, “You just got burned.”

“Shut up, Jisung. I know.”

+

True to their words, Jaehyun and Taeyong don’t go to work. Instead, the work comes to them. Jisung doesn’t want to argue with them, he knows how important their jobs are. He isn’t really complaining, either. He has no energy to do anything as of now.

“Don’t sleep here, baby. If you’re tired, go to bed,” Jaehyun’s soft voice tells him. He nods, blearily getting up and walking to his bedroom. He checks the time, it’s just past twelve. He doesn’t have anything better to do, so he sleeps.

+

“Will he take lunch?”

“He hasn’t thrown up the porridge, so I think he will.”

Jaehyun and Taeyong are still in the living room, not having budged since they migrated there from their bedroom. Their laptops are open, reflecting light that was adjusted to not harm their eyes. Taeyong gets up and stretches.

“I’m gonna check on him.”

Taeyong opens Jisung’s door slowly and winces when it creaks. He finds Jisung half-asleep, sitting up in bed and mindlessly watching something on his phone.

“Do you want lunch, Sungie?”

“No,” Jisung draws it out, pouting. “I want cuddles.”

Taeyong smiles. He obliges, climbing into bed as Jisung shifts to make space for him. It doesn't take long for him to fall back asleep.

+

Some time later, Jaehyun wanders into Jisung's room. The sight that greets him makes him immeasurably happy. He approaches his sleeping family with Creampuff hot on his heels. The feline launches himself on the bed and curls up at Taeyong’s feet, which are entangled with Jisung’s. Jaehyun stands at the foot of the bed for a moment, contemplating what to do. He could either wake them up and ruin their perfect sleep, or he could join them and sleep off the strain the laptop has put on his eyes. He chooses the latter, slipping into bed on Jisung’s unoccupied side, which is abnormally warm. He lays a quick kiss on Jisung’s forehead and shuts his eyes.

+

 _“Get drunk with this strange mood_  
_You can let yourself go_  
_But you can’t escape from me_  
_Right now, when we’ve become so listless.”_

Taeyong wakes up, searching for the source of the suggestive melody.

 _“So your neatly brushed hair can get tangled_  
_Leave it alone, you’re beautiful, oh oh_  
_Even if your proper stance becomes loosened_  
_It’s alright, look straight at me, oh yeah.”_

He props himself up and looks over Jisung’s shoulder, catching Jaehyun’s confused gaze. And then they spot Jisung’s phone, belting out inappropriate lyrics. Jaehyun picks it up from the bedside table, his eyebrows arching high as he reads the name of the contact. He shows it to Taeyong, who first reads the time, 2:58 PM, and then ‘Lele <3’.

“Should I pick up?” Jaehyun whispers to him.

“Go for it.”

A hesitant swipe on the phone screen later, Taemin’s _Move_ stops playing.

“Oh. My. God. Jisung, you will not believe-”

“Uh-”

“I have the tea. Jaemin went off this morning on Renjun. I know, right? That’s so fucking unexpected. And Lami didn’t even-”

“Um, Chenle, this is Jaehyun.”

“Oh, fuc- oops. Uh, sorry, Mr. Jung.”

“It’s alright, do you want me to pass a message to Jisung? He’s asleep.”

“Just tell him to call me back as soon as possible. I have the tea. Thanks Mr. Jung!”

Jaehyun can’t figure out what that means for the life of him. By the looks of it, neither can Taeyong.

“So,” Taeyong starts. “Do you think he likes Chenle?”

“We are not having this conversation.”

“You don’t want him to end up like us, do you?”

“Let’s hope he isn’t as oblivious as we were.” Jaehyun struggles to move with Jisung’s arm around him and Creampuff dozing off on his legs. At his failed attempt, both Jisung and the cat stir awake.

“Good morning,” Jisung yawns. Creampuff stretches, yawns, and jumps off the bed.

“Lele less than three called,” Jaehyun tells him. That wakes him up properly.

“First of all, that’s a heart. Secondly, what did he say?”

“Something about tea. And Jaemin took off on Renjun. Or something like that.”

“...”

+

Jisung’s health takes a turn for the better after he eats some more porridge. He’s been talking to Chenle for about an hour or so, and Jaehyun and Taeyong helplessly bustle around the house, trying to occupy themselves.

“Yeah man, they're such losers.”

“No, seriously. They have nothing to do!”

Jaehyun looks at Taeyong, slightly panicked.

“I know, I know. They need to get their shit together.”

His panic morphs into confusion.

“Exactly. Otherwise their relationship isn’t going to work out.”

Even Taeyong’s confused now.

“They’re idiots, I swear. So oblivious.”

Taeyong lays a reassuring hand on Jaehyun’s shoulder, who looks like he’s going to barge into Jisung’s room any second.

“Yeah, we need a ship name.. Nomin? That sounds pretty cute.”

And they’re back to confusion.

“Hm. I’m pretty sure… No, Jeno doesn’t like Yeri. Come _on_ , I don’t even think he’s straight.”

Well, this is kind of unexpected. Who thought Park Jisung is a gossiper?

“He’s bi? _No_ , shut up… seriously? Maybe he does like Yeri, then.”

Jaehyun gives Taeyong a look, which very clearly translates to ‘What the everloving fuck?’.

“Oh yeah. Didn’t he have a thing with... Koen, was it?”

Gossiping is something neither Taeyong or Jaehyun bother themselves with. It’s mostly their secretaries, Donghyuck and Johnny, who do that.

“Or was that Jaemin? Ah, yeah. It was Jaemin.”

Taeyong powerlessly shrugs at Jaehyun, who responds with an expression of resignment.

+

“How are you feeling?”

Judging by the rate of Jisung’s consumption, he seems perfectly fine.

“Much better. How about you?”

“Alright.”

“I’m glad you guys stayed at home today. It wouldn’t kill you to take an off day once in a while.” He says between bites of rice.

“I... guess so,” Jaehyun reluctantly replies.

Jisung shoots him a small smile and returns to his dinner.

+

“He’s right, you know.” Taeyong rolls over so that he’s facing Jaehyun.

“I know,” Jaehyun whines into the pillows, dodging his husband’s looks.

“Old habits die hard.”

Jaehyun snorts. “Let’s just focus on sticking to the routine, okay?”

“Hmm. What do you want to make for lunch this Sunday?”

“... pasta?”

“Shut up. Let’s try something new.”

“Well what do suggest then, Chef Lee?”

Taeyong contemplates for a second, then sighs. “Pasta it is.”

He can’t see it in the darkness of their room, but he knows Jaehyun’s triumphant smirk is there.

A few moments of silence pass, then he feels an arm nudging him. Smiling indulgently, Taeyong opens his arms for Jaehyun to slip in. After he hears a content sigh, Jaehyun speaks.

“It doesn’t make you less of a parent, by the way. He just woke me up first.”

“I’m kind of surprised you picked up on that.”

“I know you. We’ve been married for almost ten years now.”

“Hmm.” Taeyong places a kiss on Jaehyun’s forehead. 

“Sleep well.”

“You too.”

More silence. Then:

“Jaehyun.”

“Yeah?”

“I love you.”

“I love you too.”

**Author's Note:**

> hello!! I hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it!!  
> Leave a comment, I'd love to know what you think!!  
> [ my twitter!! ](https://twitter.com/jaehyunphilic)  
> [ my cc!! ](https://curiouscat.me/whoviee)


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